Discover Buda, Davao City

I was in Manila for a two-week training when some of my friends invited me for a quick weekend getaway at Buda. Since I'm flying home on the same date, I instantly gave them a go signal.

The 50-Peso Challenge

At around nine in the morning, we met up with Miel and Gem at 7-Eleven. Traffic was quite terrible and unusual on a Saturday morning. Since we didn't have any breakfast yet, we decided to buy some food at Jollibee Ulas. While waiting for our queue at the drive-thru, Miel suddenly panicked. She forgot to bring her wallet, and she only had 50 pesos on her coin purse. Talking about being confident. LOL. It was never, never... NEVER ENOUGH.

The Cold and Mud Never Bothered Us Anyway

Bemwa Farm

Muddy road

Buda, short for Bukidnon-Davao, is a locality situated near the borders of Davao City, and the provinces of North Cotabato and Bukidnon. Buda enjoys a year-round cool weather, with an average daytime temperature of 23 degrees Celsius. In downtown Davao, it's always a sweltering 33 to 35 Celsius. No wonder this place has become a popular summer destination. Driving all the way to Buda is always a visual treat. The highway is surrounded by towering verdant landscapes blanketed by clouds and fog.

It took us two hours before reaching Bemwa Farm. Entrance fee costs 50 pesos and it's consumable. It was drizzling that time, so the trails were muddy and slippery. We stayed there for at least a couple hours before we decided to take the road less traveled.

And so the fun begins.

Arakan Valley

One with nature.

Hills View Mountain Resort is another resort located north of Bemwa Farm.  Since Sef's car isn't an ATV, we hired a motorcycle or habal-habal. The roundtrip fare costs Php 170 per person. It's only 5 kilometers away, but it took us almost forever to reach that place. Traveling there was quite a challenge - roads were unpaved, slippery and muddy, and treacherous. If you're not careful, you'll end up falling into a hundred-foot ravine. Thank God, we made it unscathed, sans the thick mud covering my boots and pants. We spent the next few hours shooting and vlogging about this place. We can't help it, the view and the surroundings were truly breathtaking.

I never thought I'd do some serious hiking this month. I was only expecting to just chill around the farm and enjoy the cold weather. But then again, no regrets. I missed hiking. When I was in New South Wales, Australia, I hiked for at least three hours at Blue Mountains National Park on similar weather conditions.

At the end of the day, the best view comes after the hardest climb.

Scenic waves.